Financial Careers
What am I going to do after
school or university? Maybe I should consider a job in the financial world.
There's a surprisingly wide range to choose from — for example, I could raise
money for charities or sell famous paintings or write about economics as a
financial journalist or run my own company or...
Fund-raiser. There are
thousands of different charities these days — e.g. 'for children', 'cancer
research', 'the disabled', 'the third world', 'AIDS research'. They all do
important work and they all need to raise funds (collect money).
That's why they employ
fund-raisers. What does the job involve? Well, it's very varied, but basically
fund-raisers organise special events like concerts
and fun runs, ask governments for money, try to get support from local
companies and organisations.
Most major charities have
fund-raising departments, which employ teams of workers. Some of these people
do office work — others organise publicity, visit companies or arrange special
events. Sounds interesting?
Tycoon. A wealthy and powerful
person in business or industry. If you are the independent, creative type, why
not start your own business? Lots of people do these days. Some aren't
successful, of course, but plenty are —j and if you do succeed, the rewards of
being your own boss can be. enormous. To become a business tycoon you need to
have an original idea; be practical, reliable and well-organised; understand
the business world; keep control of your finances. After that it's all a
question of hard work and luck, but then that's the key to success in any job.
Financial journalist.
Financial journalists work in three main areas — newspapers, radio and
television. Their job is to understand what's happening in the financial world
and explain it as quickly and accurately as possible. Economic journalists
don't just report today's news, though. They need the ability to predict future
events, too. "Will interest rates rise or fall? Will the stock market go
up or down? And what about trade... are exports going to increase or
decrease?"
To become a financial
journalist you train as a general reporter first. Then you specialise in
finance and economics. And when you've done that? Well, if you are lucky you'll
get a job in the media. One word of warning, though — financial journalism is a
very competitive career. In Britain, for example, there are only 2,000 jobs
available.
Auctioneer. Two of the
best-known auction houses in the world are Christie's and Sotheby's. The
auctioneer who works there regularly sells famous paintings worth millions of
pounds. But you'd be wrong to think that auctioneers just sell Rembrandts and
Van Goghs. It's much more varied career than that. Some auctioneers sell farm
animals, for example. Others sell houses, antique furniture or even rock and
roll 'memorabilia' (i.e. guitars, cars, clothes etc., which ones belonged to
pop stars). And what does it take to be a good auctioneer? Well, three
qualities are absolutely essential — a calm personality, a quick mind and (last
but not least) a strong voice.
Dealer. Dealers work for
companies which buy and sell foreign currencies, commodities like oil or steel.
They work in large, noisy, rooms, called dealing rooms and do most of their
business over the phone and on computer screens. The majority of them are under
35. The majority of them also earn very big salaries because their work
involves huge amounts of pressure and responsibility. You don't need a degree
to be a dealer. What you do need, though, is talent, energy, confidence and
ambition.
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